American Antiquarian Society Visiting Fellowships

The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) invites applications for its 2010-11 visiting academic fellowships. At least three AAS-National Endowment for the Humanities ellowships will be awarded for periods extending from four to twelve months.

Long-term fellowships are intended for scholars beyond the doctorate- senior and mid-career scholars are particularly encouraged to apply. Over thirty short-term fellowships will be awarded for one to three months. The short-term grants are available for scholars holding the Ph.D. and for doctoral candidates engaged in dissertation research, and offer a stipend of $1850/month. Special short-term fellowships support scholars working in the history of the book in American culture, in the American eighteenth century, and in American literary studies, as well as in studies that draw upon the Society’s preeminent collections of graphic arts, newspapers, and periodicals. Accommodations are available for visiting fellows in housing owned by AAS.

The deadline for applications is January 15, 2010.

For further details about the fellowships, as well as application materials, please consult our website

The AAS is a research library whose collections focus on American history, literature, and culture from the colonial era through 1876. The Society’s collections are national in scope, and include manuscripts, printed works of all kinds, newspapers and periodicals, photographs, lithographs, broadsides, sheet music, children’s literature, maps, games, and a wide range of ephemera. In addition to the United States, we have extensive holdings related to Canada and the British West Indies. As such, our collections offer ideal resources for research in the history of the Atlantic World.

For detailed descriptions of the collections, please their guidebook, Under Its Generous Dome, available online here.

This Weeks Top New York History News

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

Each Friday New York History compiles for our readers the week’s best stories and links from the web about the history of New York. You can find all our weekly web highlights here.

Low-Cost Courses on Collections Care Offered

Upstate History Alliance (UHA) is offering a low-cost series of four-week online courses in collections care and preservation which provide basic, practical training. The courses are designed for staff, volunteers, board members, or interns at small to mid-sized museums. Each can be taken at the student’s own pace. The courses also offer interaction with qualified instructors and assignments are based on your own collections.

The cost to participate in one of the online courses is $45 for UHA members, $60 for non-members. The cost to participate in the complete series is $150 for UHA members, $200 for non-members. For more information or to register for this course, visit
www.upstatehistory.org.

Here are the course descriptions from UHA:

Introduction to Reformatting with Toya Dubin
February 1, 2010 &#8211 February 26, 2010

This course should help you determine the best way to approach a digitization project for varying collections and is intended to take the mystery out of digitization vocabulary, while shedding light on technical issues.

Climate Control for Small Institutions with Michele Phillips
March 1, 2010 &#8211 March 26, 2010

This course will allow participants to explore the issues that need to be considered when planning for climate controls including monitoring, testing, environmental analysis assessments, long-range planning, systems design, construction support, and operations training. Low cost-low tech solutions will be offered and discussed, providing participants with the background knowledge to assist them in making informed decisions that can be implemented at their own institutions.

Basic Preservation, Care & Handling of Paper Based Materials with Michele Phillips
April 5, 2010 &#8211 April 30, 2010

Learn the mechanics behind the degradation of paper materials and how through passive activities and techniques you can slow down the march of time and safeguard your collections.

Conservation & Preservation of Photographs and Albums with Gary Albright
May 3, 2010 &#8211 May 28, 2010

Students will learn about photographs and their many formats &#8211 black & white, color, negative, prints, and albums. We will review the major processes, how to identify and date them, how to recognize their deterioration, and what can be done to preserve them.

Do You Recognize These Adirondack Faces?

All bundled up and ready for fun and perhaps just a little mischief! Saranac Lake, New York photographer William F. Kollecker snapped a shot of these adorable children in 1935. The image is now in the collection of the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y. Sadly, the names of the kids were not recorded on the photo.

The museum will use the photograph in advertising for the 2010 Cabin Fever Sunday Series. The happy little faces will smile out from posters and newspaper ads throughout the North Country. Do you know who they are?

The Adirondack Museum would like to complete the historical record connected with this photo, and learn the names of the children if possible.

If you recognize your mother, grandfather, or even yourself in the photograph, please contact Susan Dineen, Director of Marketing at (518) 352-7311, ext. 121 or email [email protected].

William F. Kollecker produced a rich collection of photographs of the Saranac Lake area. The photos are largely preserved in the Adirondack Collection of the Saranac Lake Free Library. He is recognized today as the most successful and prolific photographer in the village’s history.

According to Historic Saranac Lake, &#8220No other photographer captured the face and feeling of Saranac Lake or portrayed the lives and lifestyles of its citizens with greater accuracy or artistry for a comparable time period.&#8221 Among the many faces he captured were those of these children.

Photo: Photograph by William F. Kollecker, ca. 1935 from the collections of the Adirondack Museum.

Farmers’ Museum Candlelight Evening December 20th

Candlelight Evening, a regular holiday tradition now in its 30th year, will be held Sunday, December 20, from 3:00 to 7:00 pm at The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown. During the event the grounds of the Museum take on a magical appearance, decorated in greenery and illuminated by thousands of candles. Visitors can ride through the museum in wagons pulled by draft horses with full sets of harness bells. Complimentary wassail, warmed in kettles over open fires, is served throughout the afternoon and evening. Caroling is scheduled throughout the event. Visit with Saint Nicholas at the Filer’s Corners Schoolhouse from 4:30 to 5:00pm and again from 5:30 to 6:00 pm. Members of the Congregation of the Christ Episcopal Church will present “A Living Nativity,” with performances at 5:00, 5:20, 5:40 and 6:00 pm at the Morey Barn. (Seating is limited.)

An array of seasonal musical programs will take place at the Cornwallville Church including performances by the Catskill Chamber Singers, the Catskill Choral Society Girls’ Choir, and the Northern Comforts Men’s Quartet throughout the evening. Enjoy caroling with Ron Johnson in the More House. The Cooperstown Central School Band will perform on the porch of Bump Tavern and Leatherstocking Brass will entertain at the South End of the Main Barn.

At Filer’s Corners Schoolhouse, children will enjoy arts and crafts activities from 3:00 to 4:15 pm. The Empire State Carousel will be open for rides throughout the event. Todd’s General Store and The Farmers’ Museum Shop will be open with holiday-inspired merchandise.

Hearty, warm chili and soups, gingerbread cookies, brownies, and a variety of hot beverages will be on sale in the heated Louis C. Jones Center in the Museum’s Main Barn and also in the Williams Carriage House next to Bump Tavern.

Candlelight Evening visitors should dress warmly and wear boots. The use of the shuttle system system is encouraged, as parking is very limited on the museum grounds. There will be free shuttle service from The Otesaga Hotel on Route 80- the Elementary School parking lot- the Red Trolley Lot located off Route 28 (Glen Ave.)- the Yellow Trolley Lot, on Lake Road, Route 80, above the Fenimore Art Museum- Doubleday Parking Lot, and a pick up point near the entrance to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, to The Farmers’ Museum throughout the evening.

Admission is $11 for adults- $9.50 for seniors- and $5.00 for children ages 7-12. Members and children under 6 years of age receive free admission.

Photo: Candles by Alan Lincourt- courtesy The Farmers’ Museum.

Vermont Already Planning Civil War Sesquicentennial

April 12, 2011 will mark the 150th Anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and the Vermont Historical Society (VHS) has already begun leading the statewide planning effort for the Vermont Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration. With educational institutions, state agencies and other nonprofit organizations, VHS will be developing plans for programs that will explore and celebrate the role of the Green Mountain State in this bloody conflict.

Statewide events, such as an encampment of Civil War reenactors and a major conference, as well as activities that will explore the Civil War stories in communities throughout Vermont are under consideration. The VHS are also working with the Vermont Governor’s office to create a Vermont Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission that will coordinate planning and implementation throughout the multi-year commemoration.

The second article in Vermont’s 1777 constitution, abolished slavery, making it the first state to do so. As a result of Vermont’s abolitionists tendencies, more than 28,100 Vermonters served in Vermont volunteer units and nearly 5,000 others served in other states’ units, in the United States Army or the United States Navy. A total of 166 African American Vermonters served out of a population of just 709 in the entire state.

The first military action seen by Vermonters was at the Battle of Big Bethel on June 10, 1861, where a battalion of the 1st Vermont Infantry was engaged. The 1st Vermont Cavalry regiment participated in more than 70 engagements.

Following the Confederate raid on St. Albans on October 19, 1864, Vermont fielded two companies of Frontier Cavalry, who spent six months on the Canadian border to prevent further incursions from Confederate raiders.

Sixty-four Vermonters received the Medal of Honor, including Willie Johnston, the youngest person ever to receive this award.

Frederick Douglass Book Prize Submission Sought

Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition has announced the twelfth annual Frederick Douglass Book Prize, a $25,000 award for the most outstanding nonfiction book published in English in 2009 on the subject of slavery and/or abolition and antislavery movements. Publishers and authors are invited to submit books that meet these criteria.

The center is interested in all geographical areas and time periods, however, works related to the Civil War are acceptable only if their primary focus relates to slavery or emancipation. The submission deadline is April 2, 2010.

For information on submitting books e-mail them at [email protected].

A list of past winners can be found at www.yale.edu/glc.

Photo: The Black Community at Hurricane Garden Cottage, Davis Bend, courtesy New-York Historical Society.

28 Properties Recommended for Historic Register

The New York State Board for Historic Preservation recommended the addition of 28 properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places, including such nationally significant sites as the National Grid Building in downtown Syracuse, the Bird Homestead in Westchester County, and a French and Indian War archaeological site in Saratoga County.

State and National Historic Register listing can assist property owners in revitalizing the structures, making them eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits. The State and National Registers are the official lists of buildings, structures, districts, landscapes, objects and sites significant in the history, architecture, archeology and culture of New York State and the nation. There are 90,000 historic buildings, structures and sites throughout the state listed on the National Register of Historic Places, individually or as components of historic districts. Property owners, municipalities and organizations from communities throughout the state sponsored the nominations.

Once the recommendations are approved by the state historic preservation officer, the properties are listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and then nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, where they are reviewed and, once approved, entered on the National Register.

STATE REVIEW BOARD RECOMMENDATIONS

Broome County

Vestal Central School, Vestal – a distinctive 1939 Art Deco school built as part of the town’s centralization program to accommodate a fast-growing population and designed by one of the region’s prestigious architectural firms.

Chemung County

John Brand Jr. House (Parkside Apartments), Elmira – a distinguished and largely intact example of a large-scale Queen Anne/Shingle style residence built around 1890.

William S. Gerity House, Elmira – a large-scale Queen Anne/Eastlake style residence built around 1880 that is likely the work of Thomas Gerity, William’s father and a prominent contractor responsible for many of Elmira’s major buildings.

Erie County

Alling & Corey Warehouse, Buffalo – the 1910 building is an excellent and early Buffalo example of the type of reinforced concrete industrial buildings that came to be known as the &#8220Daylight Factory.&#8221

Buffalo Trunk Manufacturing Building, Buffalo &#8212- a 1901 &#8220slow-burn&#8221 masonry and wood factory that embodies the characteristics of a turn-of- the-twentieth-century industrial building constructed in manner to safeguard against the ravages of factory fires.

The Kamman Building, Building – the 1883 commercial building is a rare survivor of the Hydraulics/Larkin Neighborhood, one of Buffalo’s earliest, distinct neighborhoods, and Buffalo’s first manufacturing district, founded in the 1820s, which was an important self-contained neighborhood with a mix of industrial, commercial and residential architecture through the mid-20th century.

Essex County

Willsboro School, Willsboro – the 1927 Neoclassical style school building retains a high level of its original standardized school building design of the period.

Fulton County

Oppenheim and St. Johnsville Union Society Church, Crum Creek – a highly intact, representative example of vernacular religious architecture in rural Fulton County constructed in 1853.

Herkimer County

Overlook, Little Falls – the High Victorian house was built in 1889 for David H. Burrell, whose dairy industry inventions and innovations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries helped make Little Falls one of the most important cheese-producing centers in the United States.

Kings County

The Jewish Center of Kings Highway, Midwood – built in 1928-30, the Neo-Classical synagogue dates from a period when Brooklyn had emerged as one of the world’s major Jewish population centers and combines religious facilities with classrooms, a social hall, and a gymnasium, as was characteristic of the &#8220Jewish Center&#8221 movement.

Kingsway Jewish Center, Midwood – built in 1951, it is an example of a post-World War II modern synagogue in Brooklyn.

Young Israel of Flatbush – built in 1925-29 for an Orthodox Jewish congregation, the Moorish Revival synagogue reflects an international trend to adapt the more ‘Eastern’ Moorish-style to synagogue design.

Monroe County

First Baptist Church of Mumford – a largely intact representative example of vernacular Greek Revival style church architecture built in 1852 for a rural Protestant congregation.

Teoronto Block Historic District, Rochester – the well-preserved examples of mid-19th century commercial architecture reflect the city’s rapid growth as a mill center and Erie Canal boomtown.

Onondaga County

The Niagara Hudson Building (National Grid Building), Syracuse – completed in 1932, the headquarters for then the nation’s largest electric utility company is an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture and a symbol of the Age of Electricity.

Onondaga Highlands-Swaneola Heights Historic District, Syracuse – a turn-of-the-twentieth-century subdivision where the rolling topography, uniform building setback, and popular residential styles form a cohesive neighborhood that retains its architectural integrity.

Orange County

Newburgh Colored Burial Ground, Newburgh – an archeological site with great potential to yield information about the city’s mid-19th century African-American population.

Walsh-Havemeyer House, New Windsor – the Greek Revival influenced house was built around 1835 for a family who operated one of the region’s early industries on the adjacent Quassaic Creek.

Lower Dock Hill Road Stone Arch Bridge, Cornwall-on-Hudson – an early example of 19th century stone arch bridge construction.

St. Lawrence County

First Congregational Church of Madrid – the 1890 Eastlake-style church building has been the spiritual and social center for the oldest congregational church society in St. Lawrence County.

Sunday Rock, Colton – public outcry has twice saved the 64,000 pound glacial boulder, a natural traveler’s landmark for centuries, from demolition to make way for construction of State Highway 56.

Saratoga County

The Royal Blockhouse – built in 1758 in the vicinity of Fort Edward, the Royal Blockhouse was a key part of one of the largest British military complexes in North America at the beginning of the French and Indian War, and its remnants are likely to yield a wealth of archaeological information about 18th century military practices.

Schenectady County

Ronsendale Common School, Niskayuna – the rural school building, which served students from its construction in the 1850s until 1915, retains an exceptionally high degree of architectural integrity in a rural setting despite rapid commercial and residential development in the town.

Steuben County

Atlanta Presbyterian Church, Atlanta – a well-preserved example of Queen Anne-style church architecture which reflects Atlanta’s late-nineteenth century prosperity as an important local transportation, food processing and commercial center.

Ulster County

Lattingtown Baptist Church, Marlborough – Constructed circa 1810, in what was the original center of activity for the town of Marlborough, the Federal period meeting house style church is closely associated with the settlement, growth and development of this riverside town.

Warren County

Methodist Episcopal Church, Stony Creek – Built in 1856-59, the building is a good e
xample of wood frame church architecture in a small Adirondack cross-roads settlement.

Westchester County

The Bird Homestead, Rye – the 1835 Greek Revival was the home of Henry Bird and sons Roland T. Bird and Junius Bird, three prominent scientists who made discoveries of national significance in the fields of entomology, paleontology, and archeology respectively, and were leading members of the American Museum of Natural History.

Tuckahoe High School, Tuckahoe – the 1930-31 school is an outstanding example of Art Deco public architecture, reflecting the importance of education to its suburban community.

This is the rest of the post

Correction History Society: NYSs Last Hanging Exhibit

At the Raymond Street Jail in the City of Brooklyn, New York State’s last execution by hanging took place 120 years ago last week. German immigrant John Greenwall, a tailor by trade and a thief by rap sheet and reputation, was hanged for the murder of Manhattan hat firm senior staffer Lyman Smith Weeks during a burglary of the victim’s DeKalb Avenue home on March 15, 1887. After Greenwall’s hanging Dec. 6, 1889, all capital sentences in the state were carried out by electrocution.

To note that date marking the transition from &#8220the noose&#8221 to &#8220the chair&#8221 in capital punishment history, the New York Correction History Society (NYCHS) has unveiled a two-part online presentation entitled &#8220Brooklyn Jail Scene of NYS’ Last Hanging Execution 120 Years Ago Dec. 6th&#8221 that examines the case in detail. The study raises questions about the prosecutorial conduct and judicial rulings that resulted, after two trials, in the condemned man’s state-implemented death.

The presentation also relates how Greenwall’s jail staff friend, an African-American porter, attempted to prove the convict innocent in a most bizarre way. Also, how the jail’s Catholic chaplain purchased a burial plot for Greenwall in East Flatbush’s Holy Cross Cemetery where 27 years later the priest himself was buried, having died a few days after being victimized by a anarchist’s attempt to poison hundreds at a Chicago dinner to honor a newly-named archbishop.

Photo: The Raymond Street Jail which closed July 20, 1963. Photo from Page 36 of NYC Dept. of Correction 1956 annual report, courtesy New York Correction History Society.